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[Robb_K]

I'm surprised I hadn't come across the British slang use of the Scots word "geezer" as just a bloke, rather than the Canadian and US main usage as for an old man, or eccentric old man. 

(1) I think that most of Australians were familiar with that usage from British Television shows like 'Z-cars' 'the Bill' and particularly 'Minder' where it was a standard word in the vocab.
I also think it is cockney, meaning London working class, slang. That's where the above shows were basically set.

  So Rocky's Boris and Natasha predate Marvel's Boris and Natasha. But maybe they were just common names to describe those pesky Russians.

(2) I think that's exactly what those names were. And I'm surprised that I never saw that connection.
I pretty much read those comics off the stands.
Boris is actually Boris Badenov.
note:-

From a Bulgar Turkic name, also recorded as Bogoris, perhaps meaning "short" or "wolf" or "snow leopard". It was borne by the 9th-century Boris I of Bulgaria who converted his realm to Christianity and is thus regarded as a saint in the Orthodox Church. To the north in Kievan Rus it was the name of another saint, a son of Vladimir the Great who was murdered with his brother Gleb in the 11th century. His mother may have been Bulgarian.

Other notable bearers of the name include the 16th-century Russian emperor Boris Godunov, later the subject of a play of that name by Aleksandr Pushkin, as well as the Russian author Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), the Bulgarian king Boris III (1894-1943), and the Russian president Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007). 

So clearly, Boris Badenov is a deliberate pun. And 'Short' fits him to a tee.
Natasha?

1. Natasha

The Russian name Наташа is a pet/familiar form of the name Natalia (Наталья), meaning “born at Christmas.” It is commonly used to address a girl or woman informally but is never used as someone’s full name on their documents. It gained popularity in the English-speaking world thanks to the success of War and Peace in the 20th century. 

 
So clearly the writers of Rocky and Bullwinkle were well-read and literate and picked two names that they were aware of and weren't too obscure.

Thanks Robb and thanks QQ.   

(1) Yes.  Clearly, Jay Ward and Bill Scott, and their writer teammates chose the name, "Boris Badenov", to take advantage of the pun from the well-known Boris Godunov, and mimic "bad enough" - perfect choice for a cartoon comic villain.  Then, they only needed a well-known Russian female name.  And Natasha fit that bill. 

The later choice of 'Boris and Natasha" absolutely HAD to have been a tip of the hat to Ward and Scott's villain team, as considering the myriad of Russian male and female given names, would have been too much of an improbable coincidence to occur randomly (obvious if one calculates the permutations of that probability mathematically (that many of us learned in Statistics class).

(2) I've never seen "Z-Cars" nor "The Bill", but I've watched "Minder" many times.  I'm surprised that I never picked up that connotation as a universal British slang term.  I just thought it was used in those few instances as some kind of slang put-down term or inside joke.  I've been an old Geezer now, for the last 15 years or so.   

[K1ngcat]

I'm surprised I hadn't come across the British slang use of the Scots word "geezer" as just a bloke, rather than the Canadian and US main usage as for an old man, or eccentric old man. 

(1) I think that most of Australians were familiar with that usage from British Television shows like 'Z-cars' 'the Bill' and particularly 'Minder' where it was a standard word in the vocab.
I also think it is cockney, meaning London working class, slang. That's where the above shows were basically set.

  So Rocky's Boris and Natasha predate Marvel's Boris and Natasha. But maybe they were just common names to describe those pesky Russians.

(2) I think that's exactly what those names were. And I'm surprised that I never saw that connection.
I pretty much read those comics off the stands.
Boris is actually Boris Badenov.
note:-

From a Bulgar Turkic name, also recorded as Bogoris, perhaps meaning "short" or "wolf" or "snow leopard". It was borne by the 9th-century Boris I of Bulgaria who converted his realm to Christianity and is thus regarded as a saint in the Orthodox Church. To the north in Kievan Rus it was the name of another saint, a son of Vladimir the Great who was murdered with his brother Gleb in the 11th century. His mother may have been Bulgarian.

Other notable bearers of the name include the 16th-century Russian emperor Boris Godunov, later the subject of a play of that name by Aleksandr Pushkin, as well as the Russian author Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), the Bulgarian king Boris III (1894-1943), and the Russian president Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007). 

So clearly, Boris Badenov is a deliberate pun. And 'Short' fits him to a tee.
Natasha?

1. Natasha

The Russian name Наташа is a pet/familiar form of the name Natalia (Наталья), meaning “born at Christmas.” It is commonly used to address a girl or woman informally but is never used as someone’s full name on their documents. It gained popularity in the English-speaking world thanks to the success of War and Peace in the 20th century. 

 
So clearly the writers of Rocky and Bullwinkle were well-read and literate and picked two names that they were aware of and weren't too obscure.

Thanks Robb and thanks QQ.   

(1) Yes.  Clearly, Jay Ward and Bill Scott, and their writer teammates chose the name, "Boris Badenov", to take advantage of the pun from the well-known Boris Godunov, and mimic "bad enough" - perfect choice for a cartoon comic villain.  Then, they only needed a well-known Russian female name.  And Natasha fit that bill. 

The later choice of 'Boris and Natasha" absolutely HAD to have been a tip of the hat to Ward and Scott's villain team, as considering the myriad of Russian male and female given names, would have been too much of an improbable coincidence to occur randomly (obvious if one calculates the permutations of that probability mathematically (that many of us learned in Statistics class).

(2) I've never seen "Z-Cars" nor "The Bill", but I've watched "Minder" many times.  I'm surprised that I never picked up that connotation as a universal British slang term.  I just thought it was used in those few instances as some kind of slang put-down term or inside joke.  I've been an old Geezer now, for the last 15 years or so.   

The term "geezer" is still alive and in use in the county of Essex, though it's now sometimes abbreviated. When I was still out and about as a performing musician I was in a pub after having played my slot at a local music festival, and a fellow I'd never met before introduced himself with the words "Awright, geez?" Perhaps in a few more decades it'll be reduced to a simple "G."

[Quirky Quokka]

selling every single episode of The Avengers

Nice trick, as I believe there are 22 and a half episodes of the first season missing.

Oh I didn't realise there were lost episodes. They may have advertised it as every series rather than every episode. They definitely started back at the Cathy Gale episodes, but we didn't see many because they stopped and started. So I don't know what we were missing. Maybe they'll turn up sometime like some of those missing Dr Who episodes that turned up in various locations round the world. We have a box set of those, but they tend to be random episodes from different series so you can't really follow a story.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

  So Rocky's Boris and Natasha predate Marvel's Boris and Natasha. But maybe they were just common names to describe those pesky Russians.

I think that's exactly what those names were. And I'm surprised that I never saw that connection.
I pretty much read those comics off the stands.
Boris is actually Boris Badenov.
note:-

From a Bulgar Turkic name, also recorded as Bogoris, perhaps meaning "short" or "wolf" or "snow leopard". It was borne by the 9th-century Boris I of Bulgaria who converted his realm to Christianity and is thus regarded as a saint in the Orthodox Church. To the north in Kievan Rus it was the name of another saint, a son of Vladimir the Great who was murdered with his brother Gleb in the 11th century. His mother may have been Bulgarian.

Other notable bearers of the name include the 16th-century Russian emperor Boris Godunov, later the subject of a play of that name by Aleksandr Pushkin, as well as the Russian author Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), the Bulgarian king Boris III (1894-1943), and the Russian president Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007). 

So clearly, Boris Badenov is a deliberate pun. And 'Short' fits him to a tee.
Natasha?

1. Natasha

The Russian name Наташа is a pet/familiar form of the name Natalia (Наталья), meaning “born at Christmas.” It is commonly used to address a girl or woman informally but is never used as someone’s full name on their documents. It gained popularity in the English-speaking world thanks to the success of War and Peace in the 20th century. 

 
So clearly the writers of Rocky and Bullwinkle were well-read and literate and picked two names that they were aware of and weren't too obscure.

Good pick-up, Panther, re Boris Badenov being a pun on Boris Godunov. I definitely wouldn't have known that one. I wonder how many other little snippets there were to find in the TV shows?

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Rocky and His Friends (Four Color 1208)
i have to admit that I was a big fan of the Rocky and His Friends and Bullwinkle TV shows, and I collected all their Dell comic books, and the first couple years of their Gold Key comic books, as well.  I liked "Fractured Fairy Tales", and Mr. Peabody's Improbable History best.  Then, Rocky & Bullwinkle.  I didn't like Dudley DooRight of The Mounties, or Aesop & Son as much, but got a slight chuckle from them here and there.  I was a big fan of June Foray and her many voices, and the dead-pan attitude of the main male actor, narrator, William Conrad, and the gravelly voice of Paul Frees' Boris. 

All in all, the flat reading of dialogue on a comic book page one can dwell on can't compete with the quick, snappy rattling off of one-liners that make up the TV show. 

As I recall, most of the Rocky and his Friends and Bullwinkle comic books (at least during the Dell period, were better than this one.

Thanks for all of the extra info you gave in your review, Robb. I don't remember the TV how very well, so I'll have to check out some of the clips on YouTube. I see there are other Rocky and/or Bullwinkle comics on the site, so I will have to try some of the others and see if they're better than this one. Though I thought this one was okay.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Buck Ryan 78a – Find the Lady

The daughter is really spoiled, and living in a dream world, thinking that she can just return to her father, and live on happily ever after, after stealing half a million pounds Sterling from him, and trying to get half a million more, just to give it to her "boyfriend", for whom she became an accessory to two murders.

I agree, Robb. She's a selfish rich kid and we don't really see any change in her. Daddy was very forgiving. Hopefully the realisation that her 'boyfriend' killed Ruby and tried to kill her had some effect. Maybe she repented and went on to live a life of service to the poor and needy   

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

Rocky and His Friends (Four Color 1208)
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=37819

Cover - pretty simple joke.
This was the prechristmas issue, which explains the presents.
But Natasha on the cover makes no sense.
The Art portrays the characters correctly. So, a good start.
Moose goes West.
The problem here is that in the show, Bulllwinkle doesn't talk so much. He reacts or someone asks him a question to explain his [odd] behavior and he explains. So the chemistry isn't quite right.
The first  two pages are all dialogue, the main characters are just standing and talking. No room for visual gags. No energy.
Peabody and Sherman - Sword and Rock 
Wondered where they got those names, having checked out Boris and Natasha previously.
We all know that Sherman was a US civil war general, I thought , hmm and googled Peabody/Civil war. Sure enough,

Everett Peabody (June 13, 1830 - April 6, 1862) was a Harvard graduate and civil engineer working for various railroads in Massachusetts and Missouri. He is best remembered for his service as a colonel in the Union army during the Civil War, in particular his role in the battle of Shiloh.

 
I get the picture of the creators of the show as just having a ball with ideas. Must have been a fun place to work.
However;-
This story is a great improvement and I like the idea of how Arthur got the sword out of the rock. This one gets it right.
Many of you will undoubted know the Internet Archive have usurped the term 'Wayback Machine'
Who says cartoons don't have cultural relevance?
https://archive.org/web/
InternetArchive/ WaybackMachine.
Great site, if you are not already aware of it.
The Soda Baron
Some good puns and verbal gags - I like it.
Fractured Fairytales
Nice one. But how many variations on the 'Kiss the Frog who is really a handsome prince, Gag have there been ?
Always one that works tho.
Knock, Knock! ( A Knock Knock joke?!)
The gags in this are based on reality.

The Symphony No. 5 in C minor from 1808 has gone down in music history as the Symphony of Fate.   

Also,
https://www.cmuse.org/beethovens-fifth-symphony-and-morse-code/

  In Morse code, “V” is dot-dot-dot-dash, or three short clicks and one long. People equated it with the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. That four-note motif was played on the timpani before every BBC wartime broadcast to Europe. The publicity about Beethoven and the “V for Victory” campaign continued in the American press for the duration of the war. 

I had always thought that they only played it the night before D Day as a secret code to announce what was coming.
Million Dollar Moose
Much better than the first story. Plenty of energy and craziness.
In a way, its not really fair to compare the quality of this comic to the quality of the show, which had imput from many people to make it what it was.
I enjoyed this book, and that's primarily what matters.
Thank you QQ, for giving us the chance to look at Rocky and Bullwinkle again.
Hopefully, Superscrounge will be here on Monday with some surprises.     


         
 

[Quirky Quokka]

Rocky and His Friends (Four Color 1208)

Peabody and Sherman - Sword and Rock 
Wondered where they got those names, having checked out Boris and Natasha previously.
We all know that Sherman was a US civil war general, I thought , hmm and googled Peabody/Civil war. Sure enough,

Everett Peabody (June 13, 1830 - April 6, 1862) was a Harvard graduate and civil engineer working for various railroads in Massachusetts and Missouri. He is best remembered for his service as a colonel in the Union army during the Civil War, in particular his role in the battle of Shiloh.

 
I get the picture of the creators of the show as just having a ball with ideas. Must have been a fun place to work.
However;-
This story is a great improvement and I like the idea of how Arthur got the sword out of the rock. This one gets it right.
Many of you will undoubted know the Internet Archive have usurped the term 'Wayback Machine'
Who says cartoons don't have cultural relevance?
https://archive.org/web/
InternetArchive/ WaybackMachine.
Great site, if you are not already aware of it.

Thanks for the extra digging on the names for Sherman and Peabody, Panther. The writers obviously loved playing around with real names. And I had never heard of the internet archive called the 'Wayback Machine'. The creators must have been fans of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Reminds me how some of the first Nokia mobile phones looked a lot like the communicators on the original Star Trek. Not a coincidence.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Hi everyone

Thanks for your comments and entertaining asides. I know we don't always have to like the comic books, because it's good to be exposed to a range of different things. However, I'm pleased most people seemed to like these selections, or at least some aspects of them.  I won't comment in depth on each of them, as I think a lot of that has already been said. So here are just some random thoughts.

Find the Lady

This is the first of the Buck Ryan strips I've read, and I really enjoyed it. I love the 60s feel to the art. As Panther and I have already mentioned, it puts me in mind of the Modesty Blaise strip, though this one predates Modesty. It would be interesting to know if these later Buck Ryan strips were an influence there.

Nadine is certainly a spoilt little rich girl, and it's hard to have sympathy for her. Obviously way before the 'Me Too' generation. When she's lying on the bed talking to the bad guy on the phone, she says 'Listen, Darling, I ... I've changed my mind. You're cruel but I can't go on without you. I'll do anything you say ... anything!'  A word of advice, love. If you already know he's cruel, that should be a red flag that this is NOT going to be a functional relationship. Run, Nadine. Run!  I can't understand why she would go back to him when she has looks and money and presumably wouldn't have trouble attracting a horde of men to choose from.

I also liked the secondary characters, especially Ma-the-Cache, as many of you have said. One of those interesting types of characters that often pop up in British noir. Love it. We didn't see much of Twilight, but after some of your recommendations, I feel motivated to go back and check other Buck Ryan stories that feature her more, especially in her bad girl days. Definitely one strip I will be revisiting. And with 79 of the stories available, it looks like I won't be short of reading for awhile. Thanks to Paw Broon and everyone else who went to the trouble of compiling all of the strips so we could enjoy the complete stories.

Rocky and His Friends

Lots of you had fond memories of the TV show, but didn't necessarily think this was of the same standard. I was very young when the show was on TV here in Australia in reruns, so I can't remember all of the snappy banter you've commented on. I thought the comic book was okay, but I must go and check out some of the original cartoons on YouTube. I think one reason people still have such fond memories of it is that it's something kids can enjoy, but adults would get the other layer of jokes, such as the puns and word play with names etc.

Now to the actual comic. The cover has nothing to do with the stories inside, but as Panther said, it was the issue before Christmas, so that explains the presents. Still, it's a cover that would have made me take it off the shelf as a kid (and as an adult at ComicCon). It was interesting that the first page gave a little intro to each story, and I guess kids could use it as a colouring page.


'Moose Goes West' was a bit corny, but I didn't mind it. Though it perhaps would have been better if we could actually hear Natasha singing 'I come from Pottsylvania with a banjo on my knee'. Also interesting to think of the story in the context of the Cold War, with Boris and Natasha spreading propaganda like their Russian counterparts. There's also a line where Boris says ' when [the moose] says the lines I've written, he'll be investigated as subversive'. McCarthyism would have been still fresh in everyone's minds when this was written, so it's interesting to see a kid's comic with deeper themes.

'Peabody's Improbable Histories' had an interesting spin on Excalibur. And thanks Panther for pointing out the there's an internet archive called 'The Wayback Machine'. Who knew!

Frivolous Facts - I wasn't sure if all of these were true, though I'll believe Robb when he says they are. I agree with Robb that some illustration wouldn't have gone astray. And amazing to know that 'they've just invented a teaching machine. Not only does it give information, but it can also examine the student on what he has learned'. I was a university lecturer for 25 years and I confirm that this is true  I wonder if the writer of these facts in 1961 could have envisaged where we would be with technology today?

'The Soda Baron' - So Boris sinks into the soda and manages to blub out ' I ain't Lloyd Bridges'. Incidentally, Dell also had the Sea Hunt comics, so a little cross-promotion.

'Fractured Fairytale' was okay, but this one has been done a lot. Not my favourite.

'Knock Knock' - A bit corny, but I guess it introduces little tykes to Beethoven's 5th.

'Million-Dollar Moose' - I used to collect stamps and I was thrilled when those albums with the little rows of plastic were introduced. No longer did I have to try to attach those pesky hinges onto the backs of stamps; I could just pop the stamps behind the little bits of plastic and move them around with ease when I wanted to add more. Alas, the importance of being acid-free wasn't a big thing back then. Twenty years later, all of my stamps had yellowed from the stupid plastic. But I digress. Completely improbable story, but fun for former stamp collector me. On a tangent, we were having lunch one day with some friends and their teenage children. I said something about the Post Office, and the 19-year-old daughter said she'd never been in a post office and asked me what they had in there. I thought she was kidding. She wasn't!

'Mistaken Identity' - It's a shame it had to end on a tired sexist joke, but at least Mr Peabody knows that dinosaurs and cavemen didn't exist at the same time. I remember we discussed this when looking at Tor a few months ago.

All in all, a fun comic.

Thanks for your comments everyone. I'll look forward to seeing what SuperScrounge comes up with for our next outing.

Cheers

QQ